Tiberius

By concentrating on the personalities of the emperors and their relationships with those around them in Rome neither Suetonius nor Tacitus does full justice to his subjects as rulers of a Mediterranean empire (although, of course, Tacitus shows in his earlier works that he is fully aware of politics at and beyond the limits of Roman imperial power). This particularly affects Tacitus’ portrayal of Tiberius, whom the historian treated as cynically as he had done Augustus. In fact Tiberius was one of the most gifted men of his age and certainly the most experienced of the possible successors to Augustus. He had borne the brunt of the fighting along the northern borders and had been entrusted with regaining the standards lost by Crassus at

Carrhae, one of the greatest diplomatic coups of Augustus’ reign. He was a fine administrator and a good judge of men. He knew that the empire needed peace and stability and that the prosaic tasks of keeping expenditure low, appointing sound generals and administrators, and punishing those who overstepped the mark were essential if the achievements of Augustus were to be sustained. Even Tacitus had to accept that at first Tiberius’ appointments and supervision of the empire were sound. The twenty-three years of Tiberius’ reign were crucial ones for consolidating the foundations laid by Augustus. (For this chapter an excellent introductory survey is Martin Goodman, The Roman World, 44 bc-ad 180, 2nd edition, London and New York, 2012. The ‘Narrative’ chapters, nos. 6-8, in David Potter (ed.), A Companion to the Roman Empire, Oxford and New York, 2006, offer a succinct overview (to AD 337). On Tiberius, see Robin Seager, Tiberius, 2nd edition, Oxford and New York, 2005.)

The death of Augustus provoked a mutiny among the troops on the Rhine, apparently in the hope of better conditions, but this was soon quelled. Otherwise the succession took place peacefully. Tiberius already had the tribunician power and could summon the senate on his own authority. What was surprising was how easily the senators, used to working the republican system in which all magistracies were elected, accepted the principle that the son, real or adopted, of an emperor would be his successor. The recognition of a ruling dynasty, the ‘Julio-Claudian’, shows just how fundamental the shift in power within the Roman state had become. (Tiberius came from the Claudii, one of the most ancient families of Rome. His integration into the Julians, Augustus’ adopted family, gives the dynasty its name.) When the people of Cyprus swore an oath of loyalty to Tiberius in 14 it was to the emperor ‘and all his house’.

However, Tiberius was now 55. His life had been an active one, largely based in the army camps, and he had never been at ease with the senatorial aristocracy who had enjoyed more leisured lives in Rome. It appears that he was reluctant at his age to take on the range of powers held by Augustus. He would have much preferred to have shared responsibility with the senate. When, at the meeting held to confer imperial authority on him, he hesitated in accepting it, the senate felt rebuffed. Without Augustus’ personal touch and authority the ambiguities of the imperial role were exposed and Tiberius never found a formula that satisfied the senators. The relationship remained uneasy, or worse, for the whole of his reign.

The people of Rome, hungry as ever for ‘bread and circuses’, were no better impressed. Squandering resources on shows was not Tiberius’ way and the crowds focused instead on Germanicus, Tiberius’ nephew, designated by Augustus as Tiberius’ heir. Germanicus was campaigning along the German borders in the hope of avenging the defeat of Varus. It was a fruitless task with little in the way of long-term gains. Tiberius felt that the frontiers should be stabilized rather than extended and recalled Germanicus in ad 16. The extravagant triumph Germanicus held in Rome consolidated his reputation as the darling of the masses. Tiberius then sent him east to bring order to the client kingdoms there, but when he died in Antioch in ad 19 there were many who believed Tiberius had connived with the local governor in poisoning him. When Tiberius, in an effort to calm the hysteria with which Germanicus’ ashes were received in Rome, refused to attend their interment, his guilt seemed confirmed.

The new heir was Drusus, Tiberius’ own son and his preferred successor. Tragically he died in 23. Tiberius’ distress, and perhaps an increasing reluctance to appear in public when he developed a disfiguring skin disease, made him all the more isolated and in 26 he withdrew to an imperial palace on the island of Capri. In essence he had abdicated. ‘He let all affairs of state slide’, Suetonius tells us, ‘neither filling vacancies that occurred in the equestrian order, nor making new appointments to senior military posts, or the governorships of provinces.’ Suetonius revels in the details of the supposed sex life of the elderly Tiberius, but the companions he chose to accompany him to Capri seem to have been eminently respectable.

In Rome, with the senate now apparently unable to take any form of initiative, there was a power vacuum. It was filled by Sejanus, the Prefect of the Praetorian Guard. Although Sejanus was only an equestrian he was not a mere upstart. His father had been the prefect of Egypt and he had links to noble families. He was ambitious and, if Tacitus is to be believed, coldly single-minded in his pursuit of power. He grouped the Guard, the only effective military force in Italy, into one barracks on the edge of Rome, pushed aside rivals, and gained the appointment of supporters to provincial governorships. Tiberius trusted him (‘my partner in toil’, he described him on one occasion) and had made him fellow consul for part of the year 31. When he discovered later in that year how Sejanus was plotting to succeed him his reaction was immediate. A letter was sent to the senate denouncing Sejanus. The same senators who had fawned to him when he was the emperor’s favourite now had no compunction in deserting him. He was executed the same day and his family was included so that his line would be destroyed for ever. To meet the legal requirement that a virgin could not be executed the executioner raped his young daughter before strangling her.

Tiberius was now in his seventies. Old age, isolation, and suspicion of those jockeying for power now that the succession was open made his last years ones of deepening gloom and even terror. Supporters of Sejanus were still being executed two years later. Within the imperial family two of Germanicus’ sons and his widow Agrippina were executed or committed suicide. Tiberius eventually designated as joint heirs his great-nephew Gaius, the last surviving son of Germanicus, and his grandson by Drusus, Tiberius Gemellus. (It was now certain that the succession should run on dynastic lines.) He died in 37 at the age of 77. The news was greeted with rejoicing. Certainly the last years of Tiberius had been dispiriting ones overshadowing the real achievements of the reign.